My parents broke the mold, when they left their little hometown in Denmark to move to East Africa. At a very tender age, I was introduced to a world far larger than I could ever have experienced at home. I learned new languages, made friends from all over the world, and discovered a myriad of cultures.

 

There are countless ways to live a life. No one has the right to dictate how you should live yours. Liberated from the prison of my own culture, I embraced change, diversity, and new opportunities. After attending high schools in Tanzania and Kenya, I invested four years in learning how to build wooden boats before living for a year onboard a Baltic schooner in the British Virgin Islands. I studied economies at Sussex and Warwick universities, then landed a job as advisor in Uganda's finance ministry. I did a doctorate in economics at Oxford University, while working part time as a freelance consultant. After a stint in the World Bank's research department in Washington, D.C., I analysed Latin American bond markets at investment banks in London and New York, which led me into asset management.

 

I retired as Global Head of Research at a major Emerging Markets asset manager in 2021 and then set out to do all the other stuff I always wanted to do. I crossed the Atlantic as captain of my own ship and spent a year travelling in Africa and Asia. Unwilling to live in Britain due to Brexit, I moved to Spain, where I am now very happily settled.

 

I have been to 184 countries and I plan to visit the rest.

 

This blog is about my experiences and my thoughts about the world. You will undoubtedly disagree with many of my opinions. I am ruthlessly woke, yet a hard-nosed economist. I am pro-immigrant, anti-fascist, an atheist, and a staunch Remoaner. I support de-criminalising drugs and sex work and I wish to see the world move beyond the tribalism of nation states.

 

I post stuff on Blueskye at jandehn.bsky.social.

 

Enjoy!